Before his famed “Harry Potter” days, Chris Columbus created one of those classic 80s films. “Adventures IN Babysitting” is not a masterpiece by any means. Until I received it I had forgotten the film even existed. Upon another viewing, the film actually has a great throwback quality to the 80s. It is always fun to watch stars of today in the breakout roles. In this case, Elisabeth Shue.

Video: 3.5/5

This film receives a better than to be expected video transfer. As the last of five 8/7 releases by Touchstone to be watched, I didn’t have high hopes for it. Following on the heels of video disasters such as “Grosse Pointe Blank” and “Preacher’s Wife,” “Adventures In Babysitting” comes through in fine style. While the image suffers from mainly issues in league with “preacher’s Wife,” this transfer has just a slight edge to that of the aforementioned title. There is still plenty of softness, but details overall appear to be a bit sharper. Of course the upgrade to high definition has brought out all sorts of issues in the original production and master. However, as 25 year-old film, it holds up fairly well. Colors have a bit more pop to them. Grain levels are consistent. This is certainly an upgrade in terms of quality, but be prepared for artifacts that you just wouldn’t see in lower resolution formats.

Audio: 3/5

The audio here has a standard 80s sound. The lossless track brings out all the cracking and distortion that is normally consumed by lossy formats. Therefore, the dialogue suffers a bit. It lands on the dull side, as the entire audio track seems to have been high frequency-killed. Something sort of akin to the Re-EQ on some receivers. The LFE channel goes in an out but never suffers any really purpose. The surrounds seem artificially created. This isn’t the best 80s-film audio presentation I have come across but given the film’s age it is hard to expect more without a complete restoration.